By KENDALL OWENS
T-H Staff Writer
Forrest City was a temporary home for several Gulf Coast refugees this week as residents of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida sought safe haven from Hurricane Ivan.
According to officials at several local motels, more than 400 motel rooms were occupied Monday through Wednesday with motel officials attempting to help some people seeking shelter by booking rooms at locations in other cities.
"We were booked solid by Tuesday and had all of our rooms filled Tuesday and Wednesday. Considering the situation that they were in, all of the people were really nice and just happy that they had somewhere dry and safe to stay and just happy to get off of the road," said Blakely Jones, general manager at the Comfort Inn.
As people packed up to head home Thursday, the word nerve-wracking would probably best describe the entire experience for coastal residents, from packing up their possessions to interstate travel.
"This was just really hard on the nerves," said Elena Anderson of Louisiana who made the trip with her husband Tony and his parents.
"My husband works in New Orleans which is normally about 45 minutes from home, and on Monday, it took him seven hours just to make the trip home. Then it took us more than seven hours to get here. The interstate was so congested Monday that they actually started asking people to just wait to leave because there was too much traffic on the roads. Once we got here everything has been pretty good. The only problem we've had is with the genius who decided it was best to work on I-55 and I-40 at the same time. That was just smart," she said.
Glen Shepherd, of Pascagoula, Miss., who left his home Tuesday and spent Wednesday here, was going through his first storm evacuation.
"We did it really fast, I can tell you that. We grabbed anything we could and packed up and made reservations. Driving was awful getting out but once we got here everything has really been great. The motel has been great, and the people here have really been great," Shepherd said.
Both Shepherd and Anderson did admit to a little anxiety in not knowing exactly what they would face when they returned home.
"I haven't been able to find out anything so far and that's a little unnerving, but it's something that we'll have to deal with," Shepherd said.
"We talked with some friends and it looks like everything is going to be fine for us, but we won't know until we get home," Anderson said.
Local motels and restaurants were not the only places visited Tuesday and Wednesday. According to Laura Mazzanti, museum director, some people made stops to get a little St. Francis County history at the St. Francis County Museum.
"We had more than a dozen people come through Tuesday and Wednesday and most of them were from Louisiana. I was just amazed that these people could do anything other than worry about their homes, but they were all in good spirits and surprisingly upbeat. They talked about how nice people here had been. If I was put out of my home, I don't know how I would handle it," Mazzanti said.
Many of the local motels helped make the stay a little more pleasant by allowing pets and complimentary refreshments.
"We did everything that we could to help make things better for them. We allowed pets to stay and Wednesday we went out and bought cookies and chips and water and left it out for them. If people came in once we were out of rooms, we tried to find someplace else here in town for them and if not, we tried to find some place period for them. I tried calling Little Rock and every place that I called there was booked solid," said Jones.
Elizabeth Frymire with Colony Inn echoed Jones' comments.
"We just did everything that we could for these folks just like we would hope someone would do for us if we were in a situation like this. Once we ran out of rooms, we called around and did what we could to find rooms. We just tried to help out in this situation as best we could," Frymire said.
With thousands of people making their way back to their homes in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida Thursday, Forrest City motorists ended up caught in part of the traffic jam.
With the added influx of people making the trek back to the coast after two days avoiding Hurricane Ivan, eastbound traffic on both Interstate 40 and U.S. Highway 70 clogged roadways through town.
Ivan was the deadliest hurricane to hit the United States since Floyd in 1999, but it could have been worse. In all, the hurricane was blamed for 70 deaths in the Caribbean and at least 28 in the United States, half of them in Florida. More bad news could await: The storm's remnants battered the southern Appalachians on Friday and Tropical Storm Jeanne looms in the Atlantic on a track toward the southeastern United States -- and, possibly, Florida.
Farmers who want to provide wildlife habitat opportunities on their land now have an avenue for financial assistance to achieve that goal, as well as receiving supplemental income for 10 to15 years.
According to a press release from the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, a sign-up period for the Conservation Reserve Program is currently underway and will continue through Sept. 24 at the local Farm Service Agency.
"The CRP provides farmers the opportunity to retire marginal croplands and pastureland for 10 to 15 years and in return, FSA provides yearly rental payments and cost-share payments to establish wildlife habitat. Rental payments for croplands can range from a low of $27 up to $63 per acre per year in St. Francis County, which includes a $5 maintenance payment per acre," AGF&C agricultural liaison David Long explained.
One change to the program places St. Francis County in a Conservation Priority Area (CPA), which provides additional points in the ranking to help get cropland approved and funded.
"The program is competitive, but farmers applying for high quality wildlife habitat practices entitled - CP2- Native Grasses, CP3A- Hardwoods and CP4 Wildlife Habitat can compete very well on the national level, especially if they choose the high wildlife points in the ranking process," Long advised. "And the opportunity is available to sign-up farmlands in the county, as determined by FSA, that has a cropping history of being cropped four out of six years between 1996 and 2001," he added.
The cropland does not have to be highly erodible to be eligible. The CPA designation allows most cropland in the county to be eligible simply by meeting the cropping history. This provides farmers the chance to retire marginal, hard to farm croplands and receive yearly income for up to 15 years. CP2-Native Grass and CP4-Wildlife Habitat offers habitat for quail, rabbits, deer and other grassland wildlife. CP3A- Hardwoods offers habitat for ducks, deer, bear, turkey and other forest wildlife.
While the program will offer financial assistance to farmers, it will not open the land in the program to public use according to David Covington with AGF&C.
"In some states if a farmer utilizes the CRA program, then he has to allow for some public usage on that land. Arkansas, though, is not one of those states. Farmers in the state still retain all their property rights even though it's in a federally funded program," Covington said.
In keeping with tradition, the Times-Herald attempted to interview both candidates for the only contested school board race in the Forrest City School District.
Rausch Hodges and Henry Peacock are candidates for the Position 4 seat on the board. Hodges was the only candidate to give an interview for this story.
Several attempts were made to contact Peacock for the interviews, but he said he could not meet with the Times-Herald to answer the questions. He was told last week that the interviews would be conducted this week, and several telephone calls to his home, his cell phone and his workplace were made in an attempt to interview him for this story.
This morning, Peacock said he was headed to Memphis for a meeting and would not be available until about noon. The Times-Herald was held past its normal deadline in an attempt to speak with Peacock, but he did not answer his cell phone past noon. The photo that appears with this story was on file at the Times-Herald.
The interview with Hodges appears below.
The candidates are not given an advance look at the questions.
Rausch Hodges lives at 2935 Mary Drive in Forrest City. He attended Forrest City public schools and graduated from Forrest City High School. He attended the University of Arkansas and the Dallas Institute of Funeral Service. He is a licensed funeral director and embalmer for Stevens Funeral Home. His wife, Sandy, teaches in the Forrest City school system. He has a son, Billy Rauscher Hodges, in the third grade, and a daughter, Mary Hoshall Hodges, in the ninth grade in the FCSD.
1. What do yo feel are the major challenges facing the Forrest City School District today, such as academics, funding, physical plant or others?
Hodges: "With the addition of the Junior High and Mustang Arena and the weightlifting facilities, I think we're in pretty good shape. The Lincoln Middle School -- that's the area of big concern right now. Caldwell would have been, but it's not any more. I would say Lincoln is our big concern.
"I think one of the biggest problems at the Forest City public schools is perception. We need to start talking about the good things at school, talking about the good things going on. There are some wonderful things -- the Mock Trial team, the things they've done. I think our academics and the things our teachers and students are doing out there are something we ought to be proud of. And in all honesty, I think that is one of our biggest problems. We have a fine school, but let's talk about the attributes. That's what we need to be concerned about."
2. Can these challenges be met, and if so, how?
Hodges: "I think by working with the media, and concentrating on some of the good things. We already have some very active parent groups. Talk about the positive things we do. Let people come in, open up the schools. Have more open houses and let the people see what's going on at school, while they're having school. Show what good things the schools are doing.
"And looking at it now, Lincoln would need some major renovations to bring it up to the standards of the rest of the schools."
3. Why do you think you are the best person to meet those challenges?
Hodges: One, I went through the school system. I went to Lincoln. I've been on the Forrest City Education Foundation, and I've seen the projects they try to do. I have kids there. I have a wife who works there. I'm around the schools quite a bit. So I think I see what's going on. I see what's going on in the classroom, I see what's going on in sporting events. And I think, to address any problem you have, you have to be aware of it and you have to be there."
4. Are there any changes you would like to make in the way the Forrest City School District is run?
Hodges: I would say, if anything, something that is brought to my attention -- reviewing some maintenance policies and making sure we are maintaining all of our facilities, not just our new facilities but maintaining all our facilities to the best of our abilities.
"But, until I would actually be elected to the School Board...That's just a question of asking how was your meal before you've even had it. I mean, for me to say I want to make a lot of changes right now, I don't think that's really the right thing to do."
5. Is there any final statement you would like to make to voters?
Hodges: The biggest things, like I said before, I have children there, I have a wife there. And the best interests of the students will come first and foremost. I'm concerned about the students.
"And I encourage everybody to vote. So many people have said, 'I live in Caldwell' or 'I live in Colt and can't vote.' This is basically a county-wide election, minus Hughes and minus Palestine-Wheatley. I want everybody to get out and vote. Everybody has a stake in this."
The Forrest City School Board will hold its regular monthly meeting Monday.
The board meeting will immediately follow the district's annual report to the public, which is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. in the library at the junior high school.
During the board meeting, members will discuss the sale of the Caldwell and Old Evans school campuses along with personnel issues.
A teacher in the Forrest City School District sought treatment at a local hospital Thursday after she was hit in the face by a student.
The Forrest City Police Department reported the incident occurred just after 3 p.m. According to the report, a 16-year-old student attacked another student and after that fight had been broken up by school officials, the 16-year-old struck Katie M. Jones, 46, of Forrest City, in the face with a closed fist.
Jones was treated and released at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Forrest City.
The student is charged with second-degree battery on a school official, a Class D felony. He is scheduled to be arraigned in St. Francis County District Court on Monday.
As of this morning, 647 St. Francis County residents had cast an early vote in the school election set for Tuesday.
County Clerk Elizabeth Smith said this voting period, which ends on Monday, has been a busy one.
"Early voting has really been busy for a school board election," said Smith. "People are really getting out and early voting. I have had many people tell me that they like early voting for the convenience. Overall, we have had no major problems, and I am pleased with the way things have gone."
Smith also stated that she wants to remind voters that early voting will be available on Monday from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. The school board election will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 21, with polls opening at 7:30 a.m. and closing at 7:30 p.m.
The St. Francis County Farm Bureau's annual convention will be held Tuesday, Sept. 21, beginning at 6:30 p.m., at the Forrest City Civic Center.
Reservations are being accepted through Friday, Sept 17. The meal will be chicken and catfish, catered by Wood's Catering of Camden.
The guest speaker will be Ewell Welch, executive vice president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau. Entertainment will be provided by Ben Robertson.
The meeting will include an introduction of the St. Francis County Farm Family of the Year, the Jim and Kim Jones family. The family has also been named District Farm Family of the Year.
There will also be a vote on policy recommendations for 2005. Tickets are $5 per person.